Who else gets ripped of 600 dollars?

[Brandon450]

I recently cancelled a place worth 2,200 for a month and I even brought a bottle for the owner but when we got there they weren’t there and we had the bottle for them just to realize that is a shared place which we did not want and it was listed as private room. My friend and I talked to owners about getting our refund back and they are talking about a cancellation fee which I thought was fair but to realize the owner took 800 dollars from us just because we didn’t want to stay there and we literally looked at the house just to find a dog and cat laying around which is also not on the listing. I mean probably 50 dollar fee is good but 800 is way too much and Airbnb is allowing this to happen. I need help with this and Airbnb is not helping at all. Any suggestions?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

I'm slightly confused as to how you thought a private room would get your whole place to yourself. If you made the listing unavailable to others a fee of 1/3 doesn't feel unfair as its unlikely the host would be able to re-let the space at short notice.

[Brandon450]

It’s actually for me and my friend and as a first time doing this, there was no good will to at least give us most of our money. The space was not even ready actually. We had to wait for the owner to get home. I actually booked this place two days prior to me canceling it so they should have been ready for us to come and others as well after we cancelled.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Brandon450 

I don't see why you think the host should cover the cost of YOUR mistake. A private room means only the bedroom where you sleep is private (and sometimes private bath - only if specified as private bath, or else it is shared with the host or other guests) and the home is shared.

If the host listed a private room then yes of course the home is shared. Clearly you didn't know what you were doing. Rather than expecting good will, I think you need to own up to your mistake and take responsibility and just because the host wasn't home waiting to greet you doesn't mean the place wasn't ready. Homesharing is NOT like a hotel or guesthouse with 24/7 reception. 

If you were willing to acknowledge your mistake and own up and be nice and polite and apologetic about it, then MAYBE the host might have been willing to extend some good will and refund more than due, but there is no reason for a host to take responsibility for someone else's mistake or put up with your frustrations. 

One third back seems more than fair.  Also, Airbnb fees go to Airbnb, not the host and Airbnb almost NEVER refunds fees. So a hefty chunk of what you didn't get back has gone to Airbnb, not the host. Stop blaming the host for everything. 

[Helen350]

EXACTLY what I was about to say, @Brandon450 , then I saw @Jessica-and-Henry0 got there before me.

- A 'private room' means just the bedroom is private the world over, in my experience, Brandon. And other facilities are shared. On Airbnb an 'Entire Place' is what you need to look for, if you want the whole house/apartment to yourself.

As regards the owner not being there on your arrival, are you aware that each Airbnb property has a check in window in the description? Perhaps you arrived before earliest stated check in? It is usual for the guest & the host to discuss the arrival time in the pre-trip messaging, so the host is not trapped in the house for hours, & the guest does not arrive unannounced to find no one in! As Jessica said, Airbnbs are not hotels, especially not homeshares; you need to negotiate arrangements the way you would with friends or family.

I'm sorry you were disappointed to find the Airbnb not as you expected.... But sadly it was your own fault, for not familiarising yourself with the site & it's ways, & for booking the wrong sort of place for you.... (I think, I'd have just stayed, given it a go, & made the best of it! - At least a couple of nights, to see how things worked out... Who knows, you might have enjoyed it?! )

[Anonymous]

@Brandon450  First things first - in a question of whether you're entitled to a refund that deprives someone of their livelihood, the fact that you brought a "bottle" isn't relevant; you're gonna have to strike that from the record if you want any kind of results in your favor. A tip or a gift is a nice thing to do, but it doesn't somehow change the details on the ground.

As for those: it's your responsibility as the guest to read the listing before booking, and make sure that it's suitable for your needs. If the property was advertised as an "Entire House," you would have every right to a complete refund upon discovering that you shared the space with the owner and his/her pets. But as others have remarked, "Private Room" means that you have a personal sleeping space inside a shared property, and it very specifically indicates that either the host or other guests are sharing some portion of the property with you.

I do recommend taking another look at the listing. If there are pets living on the same property that guests have access to, it is the host's responsibility to disclose that detail; maybe people have serious allergies, so it's an important thing to know. If you look through the entire listing and find that the conditions you're experiencing were inaccurately described - for example, that pets were in your physical space without any indication - then you might have grounds for a refund under the Guest Refund Policy. But in order to receive that, you'll have to report it within 24 hours of your check-in and also vacate the property immediately. You can get a refund on your check-in date when you find that your property wasn't advertised properly (for example, advertised amenities being absent), but there isn't a provision for refunding guests that didn't fully comprehend the listing.

[Sarah977]

@Brandon450  I would venture a guess that you didn't bother to read through the entire listing description, because even if you didn't understand that private room means you are booking a bedroom in the host's home (which I've never heard of any other guest not understanding) it would most lkely have been evident in the listing details, as the host would have talked about common areas that are shared with guests, kitchen usage, etc. And pets would probably have been mentioned as well. When you book an Airbnb, you have to read everything the host has written, clicking on "Read more", "See all amenities", scrolling down to House Rules and "other things to note."

And as has been mentioned, yo have to arrange a check-in time with your host, not just assume he'll be sitting there waiting for whatever time you decide to show up.

If  you did, in fact, read everything and make your arrival time known, then I apologize for jumping to conclusions. Perhaps you could post the link to this listing, so we can see if the host was remiss in disclosing the pets or anything else.